Biometrics

While others obsess over fingers, Fujitsu wants your palms instead. Going against the flow, it plans to employ palm-vein scanning on smartphones in the future. The company, who is one of its few, if not the only, commercial evangelists, believes the technology to be more secure and reliable than TV's favorite metacarpal.

Apple has further detailed the way security works in iOS, including how the Touch ID system handles keeping fingerprint data safe as biometrics come under renewed scrutiny following Samsung's Galaxy S5 launch. The new iOS security whitepaper, quietly released this week, covers multiple aspects of data safety across devices like the iPhone and iPad, but is likely to be most interesting for the Touch ID scanner details and insight into the so-called Secure Enclave where Apple locks up fingerprint information.

Samsung has managed to keep the Galaxy S5 pretty much under-wraps ahead of its presumed MWC 2014 debut, but that hasn't stopped case manufacturers getting in on the action, with protection for the Android flagship already showing up in the wild. Spigen has been revealing what look to be some Galaxy S5 design cues, Android Community spotted, with a premature Amazon listing including both images and a release date, as well as raising questions about a potentially iPhone-style LED flash.

Biometric security in and of itself is nothing new, but Fujitsu has launched a laptop that takes a new spin on an old idea. The Fujitsu Celsius H730 laptop is the first of its kind to offer palm-based vein authentication, with the laptop's security elements scanning the otherwise invisible vein pattern in one's hand, which is unique to every person.

In July, Apple bought mobile security firm AuthenTec, which has shown off an early prototype of the technology that is now refined and used in Apple's iPhone 5s Touch ID. The information and prototype was made public by the newly-acquired company's co-founder F. Scott Moody, who spoke to North Carolina State University engineering students yesterday night.

The subject of the upcoming documentary The Incredible Bionic Man made an appearance at this year's NYCC, New York City's contribution to the comic convention scene. Bionic Man is made entirely of prosthetic body parts and systems, including a cardiovascular system made of a mechanical "heart" and iron-based nanoparticle "blood". He can also walk—somewhat.

Fake confirmations of Samsung buying a Swedish fingerprint biometrics company have prompted a fraud investigation, after a bogus press release claiming a $650m deal had gone ahead was released. According to the statement, put out on press distributor Cision earlier today, Samsung had acquired Fingerprint Cards in a fully cash deal; however, both Samsung and Fingerprint Cards denied any such deal had taken place, or even that talks had been underway. The scam pushed the Swedish company's stock price up by 50-percent, and prompted NASDAQ canceling a $24.6m trade.

iPhone 5s-style fingerprint security could show up broadly on Android phones within six months, a consortium led by Google, PayPal and others claims, promising an open standard rather than Apple's locked-down Touch ID. Early attempts at Android biometrics on the Motorola ATRIX and others proved clunky, but a new generation of fingerprint scanning with "very low friction" to success is fast approaching, Michael Barrett of the FIDO Alliance told USA Today.

Fame has its price, making you a bigger target than the kid down the street, as exemplified by this latest demonstration involving the newly released iPhone 5s and its much advertised fingerprint sensor. Hackers from Germany's Chaos Computing Club (CCC) have shown how they were able to deceive Apple's latest security feature into believing they're someone they're not.

US Senator Al Franken has waded into controversy over Apple's Touch ID biometric system on the iPhone 5s, challenging the Cupertino firm to address his security concerns about stolen fingerprints and data privacy. In an open letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook - in which he's quick to point out that he himself uses an iPhone - Senator Franken highlights the fact that fingerprints, unlike a password, cannot be changed by the individual. "You have only ten of them" the senator writes, "and you leave them on everything you touch; they are definitely not a secret." However, while the letter makes some reference to Apple's already public security measures, it also seems to confuse exactly which part of the finger Touch ID is assessing.